THE RETURN OF THE KILLER CAT

When his family leaves on vacation, Tuffy, the feline of the title, finds himself left with the Vicar. Tuffy’s quite annoyed by the Vicar’s insistence that all of yesterday’s food be finished before more is set out, so he sneaks out to forage with his chums. When the Vicar gives chase, Tuffy climbs a tree and gets stuck. The Vicar’s overzealous attempts to get Tuffy down result in a short flight over the hedge. Tuffy drops into the doll bassinet of young Melanie who’d been praying for a cat. Thinking Tuffy’s the answer to her prayers, she names him Janet, dresses him in doll jammies and feeds him cream and tuna. When his chums taunt him about his increased girth, the resulting cat fight shreds the jammies. Melanie thinks Tuffy has eaten her poor Janet. Just in time, Tuffy’s family returns, saving him from the Vicar’s ire. Cox’s drawings are again an asset to this wry and dry early chapter book, a sequel to Diary of a Killer Cat (2006). Some Briticisms might need explaining, but Tuffy’s gently snarky, self-centered narration will easily win him new fans. (Fiction. 7-10)